Home Style Taiwanese Cooking Cookbook

Last October I got a surprising email from an international publisher called “Marshall Cavendish” asking me if I’m interested in publishing my first cookbook. After the initial shock I didn’t hesitate at all and immediately agreed, once I read the terms of the contract of course, to publish this book with them. The result is Home Style Taiwanese Cooking

Publishing a cookbook has always been one of my dreams and this invitation from a large international publisher has made this dream come true. So for the last 6 months Chris and I have been really busy with this book. I was originally contacted around September/October and we were asked to provide 60 recipes and photographs of these recipes before Christmas. However, without really diving into photographic techniques, the core lighting in our food photos is natural lighting but here in Scotland during the winter it’s dark from 3pm to 8am (sometimes seems later if the weather is really bad which this winter it really has been).

This was a huge headache so it meant lots of extra nursery sessions for Amelia and literally I would have days where I would prepare 8 dishes and present and photograph them in rapid succession. Stressful doesn’t even come into it. It was also difficult as Chris is out working everyday as a photographer so his time is also a major factor but just yesterday I received a few copies of my cookbook in the post and I’m absolutely delighted with it.

Naturally through the process of making the book there were some “interesting” moments where the publisher wanted something but we wanted to do it differently but in the end, with a little compromise on both ends, I think the book looks absolutely fantastic.

So the first photo below is how the cover of the book will look like and the photos following that are photos of the book taken in the back garden. I might redo these photos but when I received the book I was so super excited that as soon as Chris got back from his morning photo job we quickly rushed outside, took some photos, then I went to work.

This book is literally about Home Style Taiwanese Cooking. I chose dishes that I will eat when I go home, dishes that many Taiwanese mothers and grandmothers will cook at home. Many of these dishes I learnt from my grandparents on both sides of my family and there are also dishes that I know are very common in other people’s homes. There are a couple recipes that are more Taiwanese street food style but street food is a whole other thing and if the sales of this book go well I would love to be able to make another book about street food.

This book contains 65 recipes and 99.9% of the ingredients are available in local Chinese supermarkets and normal supermarkets. The only ingredient I can think of off the top of my head that I definitely couldn’t buy in Edinburgh (bearing in mind Edinburgh doesn’t have a China town) was marinaded cordia but otherwise practically everything else I sourced locally.

There are many other online bookstores in different countries that sell my book. So if you need to help to find my book in your home country please leave message or comment for me and I will be more than happy to search for you or contact my publisher and ask them for information. To be honest I’m not too sure how many countries will sell my book but so far all of the English speaking countries that I can think of do sell it.

13 Comments

Annabelle
on April 26, 2014 at 10:22 pm

Oh wow, this looks great! I love that you have full colour photographs of the recipes in the book – it’s such a pet peeve of mine when cookbook authors don’t do that! That way you get to see what the recipe should look like in the end. Congratulations on publishing your first book and I wish you much success!

Many thanks for your kind comment. Your peeve is also my peeve as well. I really hate cookbooks that have recipes with no photos so that was one of the things that I definitely had to do for this book.

Congratulations on this book. I just bought this book today at the Kinokuniya bookstore here in Singapore where I am currently living. I bought it because I was originally born in Taiwan but moved to the US when I was very young, and I love this culinary connection to Taiwan. Reading your bio, I see that you live in Edinburgh which is where my sister-in-law lives. I have told her about your cookbook and blog. I must let my Taiwanese mommy friends know about this as well.

My mom is an excellent cook but I not yet collected her recipes as you have so this is the next best thing. I am really looking forward to trying these out! I do love the food scene here in Singapore so so if you are ever coming this way, do look me up.

Many thanks for your kind comment and thank you for purchased my book. You’re the first person outside of my friends and family that has told me they have bought my book so you’ve really made my day.

It was really great fun collecting recipes for this book and through the process I would even Skype my grandmother to double check recipes. If you could spread the word about my book I will be massively grateful and if I ever get the chance to come over to Singapore I’ll definitely drop you a message.

I’ve just stumbled upon your blog and love the look of your cookbook. Such great photos! I’m Chinese but with roots in Hong Kong and I’m always up for learning the different styles of Chinese cooking. I’ll have to see if I can find myself a copy.

Just wanna say unlike many of your blog readers, I bought your book today at a local bookshop and found your blog after reading the sleeve of the back cover. Great job and I’m looking forward to your next book.

It’s such a lovely blog. Congrats on publishing your first cookbook! I’m excited to share with my friends how delicious and how easy it is to make Taiwanese cuisine.

I wanted to let you know I nominated you for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. If you haven’t heard of it, you can google it or you can head over to my blog to get an idea of what this is all about. Hope you decide to participate